Reviews by SheepNutz:

If you are ever in lexington and are looking for a place that has great German food and a great selection of beer, than look no further than Marikkas. This place has only about 6 or 7 beers on tap, but the have 400 different bottled beers! Their beer list is about 7 pages single spaced front and back, and it will take you forever to decide. I only had a few when I was there, and they were all good. I tried a bitburger and spaten, both on tap with dinner, and finished off the meal with a skullsplitter. The service was very good, considering that there was only 1 waitress working and the dining room was packed. She seemed to know a little about the different brews also. The food is also excellent, I had my personal favorite German dish, jagerschnitzel. It went so well with the bitburger. This place is a can't miss if you are anywhere in central Kentucky.

More User Reviews:

It's a fun place with a casual & comfortable atmosphere.
Sort of quirky German music in the main dining room.
I had a draft German Helles bock with a veggie burger, excellent!
There is a separate game room & bar area.
Service was friendly but seemed to be a bit over worked.
Bottle selection is huge

This is a hybrid between your typical college bar and a beer enthusiasts paradise. Their beer menu is a packet of 17 printer pages stapled together. There's a couple arcade games, darts and billiards, and in the summer there is sand volleyball. Personally, I don't like having to go to the bar to order if I want to sit, but thats the college bar part of the atmosphere. The beer selection far outweighs everything. There is also authentic German food before 6pm. Pizza only after that.

Marikka's is a German style bar and eatery. They have a full service bar, but the beer selection is their coup. While you can get a bourbon if you're in the mood, they have the absolute largest bottle selection in Lexington. And while you'll find lots of bottles here that you won't find anywhere else, it's important to keep in mind that rarer or harder to find beers don't typically make it here. What they lack in quality, they more than make up for in quantity. That's not a bad thing either, it just depends on what you like. If you're a ticker, this place is heaven, but if you're looking for a Drie Fonteinen or a Barrel Aged Old Rasputin, you may want to try The Beer Trappe. In all fairness, I've had Barrel Aged Bigfoot and Backwoods Bastard here, so they do get some gems, it's just apparent that they've opted for variety. They also allow you to take bottles to go.

If you're into German cuisine, their wurst is great and the sauerkraut isn't bad either, though their potatoes taste like they came from a box. If you're a pretzel fiend, you have to try their big pretzel with beer cheese. I'm not going to lie, it's one of the best I've had anywhere and it could probably feed a small country.

The interior is dimly lit and reminiscent of a dive bar, but it's comfortable and roomy. They have pool tables, dart boards, air hockey, and even a sand volleyball court out back where seasonal matches take place. Steel picnic tables provide exterior patio accommodations as well. TV's are in abundance so if a game is on, chances are you'll catch it. The staff is always friendly and a few are more beer savvy than others. Their prices are fair and anyone is bound to find something they like.

If you want to try a new beer but aren't sure what, this is the perfect place.

Only been here twice but I enjoyed it both times. They have an enormous bottle list and a decent tap list. The taps are a bit uncharged but the bottles are all right on cue. I didn't try the food but it is apparently authentic German. They have a couple sand volley ball courts in the back which is fun and creates a mix of craft drinkers and BMC chuggers. Worth a peek if in town and definitely a try if you are already in Lexington. If you like sours get the Monk's Cafe Flemish its about $6 a bottle.

ok to be fair this is gonna be a little biased since i know a lot of the staff here by first name and most of them remember my name and its all from doing "homework". Marrikas is a good place, great selection, fun times and good food. If youre just going to just to drink good beer, go during the begining of the week so you dont have a crowd you can enjoy your beer and the place, if you want a party go thursday through saturday, if you want food go early cause the restruant doesnt stay open late. Ok so behind the bar is huge 8ft tall cooler that stretches id say close to 40 ft and its all beer, nothing but impressiveness. the draft selections switch sometimes but it isnt like the trappe were it can all switch in one day. Overall i send people here and the beer trappe over everwhere else in lexington

Immediately when you walk into this place you can't help but be mesmerized by the seemingly endless bottle selection behind the bar. I've never quite seen a bottle selection that deep. The atmosphere was more of my kind of place ... a place I could take my non-craft beer loving friends to and everyone would have a great time. 3 pool tables and dart boards and a more laid back atmosphere than most places with the selection of beer they have. This being said when I went in I ordered from three different bartenders, all of whom gave me the beer straight out of the bottle and I had to ask for a pint glass. This might be a negative for some but I wasn't too bothered by it. If I lived in lexington I know this would be the place my friends would want to go on a regular basis. It doesn't specifically target beer nerds and as such there is a wider variety of people there ... and I like it.

One of the best places to grab a nice craft brew in Lexington. True it is a bummer that it doesn't open till 5p.m., which is always disheartening when you forget and leave work early to go, but well worth your wait if you can stand it. The has a relatively normal bar feel. Very clean everywhere, including the bathrooms which is always a plus. Dart boards on either end of the bar with pool tables close to the front entrance along with air hockey. A great place to do summer volleyball. Nothing like having a nice brew, enjoying a good summer afternoon and taking names at volleyball. The only bad thing you could find yourself exposed to that isn't beer related is if someone with horrible taste in music gets a hold of the juke box. Really just a laid back place good for hanging out and grabbing a great libation and just as great food all in the same place.

The beer selection when looking at the fridges seems endless. Lots of imports, which is always nice, but a good accompaniment of domestic crafts as well, the big ones such as dogfish, rogue, sierra, three floyds of course. Drafts prices are awesome, $10 for a craft brew pitcher is a steal. How many places can you go and get a pitcher of octoberfest for ten bucks. Prices for bottles are good too. Usually about a buck or two less than what I would expect, especially for the bombers. If you are a first timer, you absolutely have to order an entree from their menu, their food is as close as you will get to the real thing, at least in kentucky anyway; it's delicious, filling, and just the pick-me-up you need to order that next pint.

In short, Marikka's is my next favorite place to grab a beer in Lexington next to the Beer Trappe (it's way too conveniently close to my house), but definitely well worth the drive no matter where you is at.

First impression upon seeing the place is that it looks like your everyday, common bar. The difference is their beer selection. They have something for everyone. I have no idea how many different beers they have because their selection is huge. They also serve traditional German food that is outstanding. The atmosphere isn't all that unique. It's about average for a baar this size. They have the usual pool tables, dart boards and such. The unique thing is they have a sand volleyball court out back attached to their patio. The only downside to the patio is you can't take glass out there. You have to transfer your beer to a plastic cup. My experience with their service has always been excellent. Their bartenders are friendly and knowledgeable and their service has always been fast. The menu makes for an interesting read. Being German, they obviously focus on German beer but they have a good selection from just about every country you could want. I occaisionally run into other people who know a thing or two about beer which is a nice change from the BMC drinkers i usually run into. The one thing I didn't like is that the won't serve beer in a glass after 10pm. There is a way around it. Get there before 10pm and hang on to your glass until you leave. I would also reccomend trying the food from the restaurant side. They serve some outstanding traditional German food.

Walking in, this place looks like a standard bar. There are plenty of pool tables, dart boards, air hockey, and sand volleyball in the back. But when you turn your attention to the beer selection, there are very few places that I have ever seen so much. They have roughly 300-400 different beers at anytime. Plus they offer a pretty good selection on tap. Reasonable prices for the beer. But let me tell you what will bring you back. The outstanding german food. HUGE PORTIONS!! HUGE!!!! If you don't try some of the authentic german selections, you are truly missing out. The owner is from Germany, and his family actually ships some of the ingredients to him. WOW! Great food.

This is the establishment that blazed the trail for craft beers in Lexington long before the craft beer craze. Marikka was bringing in authentic German lagers and ales to compliment her true German cousine in the early 1990's.

As they always have, Marikka's hosts the largest colleciton of beers available in Lexington with about 40 taps and 400 bottles! After recently adding another tower, they now have several Spaten, Warsteiner, Franziskaner, and Dinkle Acker beers, along with a few Bell's brands and several more craft-ish Anheuser Busch beers.

Where the American Craft Beers had been dismissed for imports, this is not the case anymore-- Dogfish, Sierra Nevada, Flying Dog, Bell's Abita, Anchor, Stone, Bar Harbor, Dixie, Goose Island, harpoon, Lexington Brewing, Magic Hat, pyramid, rogue, Sam Adams, and a few more.

Pints generally run $4 - $5. The beer drinking community rallys around Marikka's to keep the beers fresh and flowing. Even for a die-hard BA like myself, I always find a beer here that I have never enjoyed before--they just keep the variety comming.

Located a few short miles from Downtown and just off of Nicholasville Road, the locale may be easily passed up, sitting off of Southland Drive and noted by a dimly lit sign but the non-chalant, low-lying bar is nestled into a barely kept, fifties style shopping strip. The Marikka's restruaunt anchors the right end and the Bierstube right beside. The doors that distinguish the two are difficult to determine, but trust me you want to be in the Bierstube. Don't worry about parking- there's plenty.

The interiors takes on a standard hole-in-the-wall sports bar as you kinda get dumped into the dimly lit space upon arrival. A lot of green and black paint makes me think of Irish bars but with a don't-give-a-shit attitude. Granted, the place could use some sprucing up.

After meandering past a few pub tables, pool tables, dart boards, and an air hockey table, the bar is impossible to miss on the right. Not the prettiest bars or stools, but the glowing 400 bottles behind the bar should sound trumpets when bellying up. The bar has about 40 seats, while the rest of the bar can hold about 200.

On past the bar another space opens with more pub tables, the best juke box in town, and access to the large outdoor patio and sand volleyball pit. As any true Bierstube should, they offer das Boot full of beer along with a nice assortment of steins. This place should be the best place in town to watch the game, but they don't seem interested in taking the game-day mentallity serious.

Where the sports excitement runs short, the food does not. This, the only place in town to enjoy a true variety of German cuisine and at a fairly reasonable price. If ordering from the bar, then place an order with the tender. If seating at a table, then order from the bar yourself (yea, the service on the floor should be better. It does not currently and has never existed). However, despite the inconvenience, the wait staff has recently undergone a major change for the better. The current bartenders care about craft beer and care about their service--this has not always been the case.

Marikka's is generally a great place to really let the hair down, go a little crazy on Friday night, and blow off some steam. And you can do it with 400 beers at your disposal. Only open after 5:00 Monday-Saturday (yea, that's often a bummer.) and never open on Sundays (now that's a real pain in the ass).

Going out to Marikka's for a beer or 400? Give me a beermail-- I'll meet you out for a few!

Marikka's looks really small on the outside, but it's actually pretty large once you go in. They have pool tables and darts for anybody who wants to play and they have several televisions. Sort of a sports bar with a German twist. The food seems to be almost all German cuisine - wursts and schnitzel, bier cheese, etc. Of everything I've eaten there, the food is just so-so. They have several taps, but I've never been surprised with the selection. The bottled beers are very numerous, with a bottled beer menu several pages long. They have huge coolers behind the bar where you can view said many beers. The quality of the bottled beers is hit-or-miss. I've had several that were skunked and I've had several that weren't. It doesn't seem like they take very good care of the beer - it's all kept in highly lit coolers behind the bar (much like a gas station) and it's opened and closed extremely frequently. The service is hit or miss as well. Needless to say, I'm not a huge fan, but they do have a tremendous selection of bottled beers I've not seen anywhere else.